FORWARD Liam Gordon’s St Johns youth coaches on the fateful day he was switched to centre-half... and why he deserves to be Saints’captain
The big cup final was approaching and Liam Gordon was pulled to the side.
“We’ll be playing you at centre- half today” was the instruction from the management team as local youths St Johns under-15s limbered up for a shot at glory against Tulloch Thistle.
A puzzled and disgruntled look appeared on the face of a teenager who was more accustomed to striding forward from the centre of the park, certainly since making the move to 11-a-side football. Gordon was not best pleased.
“He was signed as a midfielder,” recalls John Kaylor, one of Gordon’s former coaches at St Johns.
“But our centre-half was suspended for that cup final and Liam was the tallest so we decided to put him in there.
“He was not happy. Not happy at all. He must have spoken to his dad because he came up to us before kick-off and said: ‘Look, Liam isn’t happy. He can’t play centrehalf.’ I just had to say that we had no choice.”
Fast forward to the end of the game and St Johns were celebrating a penalty shootout victory and Gordon was earning plaudits for his dominant performance in the heart of the defence - a position that would soon become his permanent home.
“As it happened, we won the cup, Liam was superb and was signed by Dundee not long after,” John continued.
“When we put him at centre-half, that was it.
“He never looked back. I like to think putting him in the defence helped him along the way.”
Gerry Scott was also a coach at St Johns and had tried to get Gordon to Saints as a young kid before he ended up joining Dundee.
“He was the typical teenager and was a little moody at times - especially when we asked him to play centre-half,” Gerry laughed.
“But he was really good for us and I’d actually phoned Saints to come down to a game and have a look at him.
“I was pretty confident they would like what they saw but an hour before kickoff Liam called off.
“So he didn’t get seen that night and then ended up signing for Dundee. He could have been at St Johnstone when he was about 14 or 15.”
Gerry then joked: “You’ll need to ask Liam but I’m sure when he had his trial with Dundee he had his Saints top on underneath!
“We only ever recommended a couple of players to Saints. Liam was one of them and Dayle Robertson the other.”
It wasn’t long before the Perth High student was on the move from Dundee to Raith Rovers, whose firstteam manager at the time was John McGlynn. When McGlynn departed for Hearts, Gordon went with him.
The defensive traits picked up playing with St Johns down the North Inch were serving Gordon well and, in 2015, the moment he had always dreamt of became reality. He had signed for St Johnstone - the team he supported as a boy.
And a true fan at that. Up to Inverness on supporters’ buses on cold, wintry afternoons and spotted at the East Stand scoreboard end on a regular basis.